Are you boring your readers to death with your long copy - or forcing them to skim through hoping for some priceless nugget they can really use?
As a staunch advocate of long(ish) copy, I'm really surprising myself here, but I'm getting a little tired of some of my favourite blogs just because they are way too long.
Most I will automatically delete if they're over about 300 words, but there are a few where I will bite the bullet and skim through because I just know there's going to be some idea or suggestion I really want to read. Wow, I would be so grateful if they would just distill it down to a few bullet points and save us all some time!
So, here are my thoughts for this week:
#1 Distill your topic down to a maximum of about three points.
#2 Use sub-heads or bullets to help your readers find your main points.
#3 Make sure your three points contain something actionable.
#4 Just kidding!
If your post really needed to be long, summarize at the end so that your readers can preview.
Was that quick enough for your?
Showing posts with label social media marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media marketing. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
What's Your Personal Brand?
It seems wherever I look just recently, I'm finding myself reading about personal branding. What's up with that?
Actually, it makes a lot of sense that when you're engaging in social media, your business brand is going to become inextricably linked with who you are away from the office. Your facebook profile is attached to your business page, and your tweets can be followed by both business and personal contacts alike.
And, of course, potential business contacts can search for you and find you on all your social media sites.
So, it's important, then, to be aware of the persona you're presenting, even when communicating with friends and family in social media. Just bear in mind that when you're sharing a joke or memories with good friends, that could be seen by your next best client. Is it something you want out there?
Of course, that's where your privacy settings come in, too. They can't completely separate your business from personal, but use the settings mindfully - and that goes further than just controlling what 'non-friends' can see. On your facebook profile, for instance, you can put all your business contacts together in a business group, and then you can control some of the things members of that group see. When you share links, videos or information you can choose to share it with just your business contacts - or not with that group at all. It's not foolproof, but it helps.
I'm still trying to come to terms with this merging of business and personal, but until it becomes possible to truly separate the two, it certainly makes sense to be aware and to use a little discretion.
Actually, it makes a lot of sense that when you're engaging in social media, your business brand is going to become inextricably linked with who you are away from the office. Your facebook profile is attached to your business page, and your tweets can be followed by both business and personal contacts alike.
And, of course, potential business contacts can search for you and find you on all your social media sites.
So, it's important, then, to be aware of the persona you're presenting, even when communicating with friends and family in social media. Just bear in mind that when you're sharing a joke or memories with good friends, that could be seen by your next best client. Is it something you want out there?
Of course, that's where your privacy settings come in, too. They can't completely separate your business from personal, but use the settings mindfully - and that goes further than just controlling what 'non-friends' can see. On your facebook profile, for instance, you can put all your business contacts together in a business group, and then you can control some of the things members of that group see. When you share links, videos or information you can choose to share it with just your business contacts - or not with that group at all. It's not foolproof, but it helps.
I'm still trying to come to terms with this merging of business and personal, but until it becomes possible to truly separate the two, it certainly makes sense to be aware and to use a little discretion.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
How To Develop a Social Media Strategy
You've heard about the cobblers children, right? They have a father who makes shoes and they walk around barefoot. Well, that's the story I tell myself when I start to feel guilty about how informal my own marketing efforts can be. I like to think the copy is awesome, but the strategy behind my activities rather belies my strategic background!
In an effort to remedy that, I'm doing a business plan class through SIFE at Mount Royal University - it's been wonderful in making me gather my vague ideas into a formal marketing plan. As part of that, I'm also writing a social media strategy, and it's an interesting exercise.
So here's my ten pen'orth (oops that's a bit of ye olde english slipping out! I guess I should say 'my take') on how to plan your social media strategy:
1) Your objectives. What are your broad business objectives, and what are your overall objectives for social media. Without defining what you hope to achieve it will be hard to plan specific activities that will support your business goals.
2) Your audience. You need to start with a very clear idea of who you want to attract to your social media activities. If you're in any kind of commercial enterprise you need to attract people who will benefit from your excellent content; but only up to the point where they decide they need your product or service.
3) Objectives and strategy for each social media platform. What you hope to achieve through twitter will probably be very different from what you hope to achieve through Facebook or your blog. By pinning down how each platform is likely to serve you, it becomes easier and more effective to define a plan of action for them.
So, while I may not have covered the entire field of social media strategy, I hope that's a good (very brief) overview, and at least something to get you thinking about what you're up to.
Have a great week!
In an effort to remedy that, I'm doing a business plan class through SIFE at Mount Royal University - it's been wonderful in making me gather my vague ideas into a formal marketing plan. As part of that, I'm also writing a social media strategy, and it's an interesting exercise.
So here's my ten pen'orth (oops that's a bit of ye olde english slipping out! I guess I should say 'my take') on how to plan your social media strategy:
1) Your objectives. What are your broad business objectives, and what are your overall objectives for social media. Without defining what you hope to achieve it will be hard to plan specific activities that will support your business goals.
2) Your audience. You need to start with a very clear idea of who you want to attract to your social media activities. If you're in any kind of commercial enterprise you need to attract people who will benefit from your excellent content; but only up to the point where they decide they need your product or service.
3) Objectives and strategy for each social media platform. What you hope to achieve through twitter will probably be very different from what you hope to achieve through Facebook or your blog. By pinning down how each platform is likely to serve you, it becomes easier and more effective to define a plan of action for them.
So, while I may not have covered the entire field of social media strategy, I hope that's a good (very brief) overview, and at least something to get you thinking about what you're up to.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The Internet Marketing Audience
Not sure if anyone is reading your blog/newsletter/assorted ramblings?
It can be really hard to motivate yourself to write to a largely unresponsive audience - and I suspect that's one of the major reasons people fall behind. But the thing about that is that your words of wisdom might not be falling on deaf ears after all.
Some time ago (two years or more, I think) I had a monthly e-newsletter called Marketing Tips. I ran it for quite a while, but for multiple reasons I eventually let it die a death.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I met, for the first time, a wonderful lady called Lynne. She remarked that she had often wondered where Marketing Tips went, because she used to look forward to it.
Apart from being nice to hear, that made me think about how easy it is to be unaware of your silent audience. Facebook fans who never respond; blog followers who don't comment; Twitterers (Twits? Tweeties?) who steadfastly remain silent. Let's face it most of us don't reply to other people's posts, so while we should aim to build an active community, we should not despair if the activity is sluggish.
If you got this far - any comment?
It can be really hard to motivate yourself to write to a largely unresponsive audience - and I suspect that's one of the major reasons people fall behind. But the thing about that is that your words of wisdom might not be falling on deaf ears after all.
Some time ago (two years or more, I think) I had a monthly e-newsletter called Marketing Tips. I ran it for quite a while, but for multiple reasons I eventually let it die a death.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I met, for the first time, a wonderful lady called Lynne. She remarked that she had often wondered where Marketing Tips went, because she used to look forward to it.
Apart from being nice to hear, that made me think about how easy it is to be unaware of your silent audience. Facebook fans who never respond; blog followers who don't comment; Twitterers (Twits? Tweeties?) who steadfastly remain silent. Let's face it most of us don't reply to other people's posts, so while we should aim to build an active community, we should not despair if the activity is sluggish.
If you got this far - any comment?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
How to Manage Your Facebook Connections
Halt! Who goes there - friend or fan?
Because your personal facebook profile and your business fanpage are inextricably linked, that can really cause some confusion about how to manage and separate your contacts.
Finding the best way to keep the personal friends on my profile page separate from my business friends and colleagues has been something of a struggle, and I admit I do keep changing my mind.
At first I thought it seemed logical to steer business connections away from my profile page, and invite them to 'like' my fanpage. But then I realized that if a business contact makes my fanpage a 'favourite page' through their own fanpage, they're not going to get any of my status updates. Not a very good way of keeping in touch.
I really don't think there's a simple answer, and I know the inability to separate personal and business is a sore spot for many people.
Here's the best solution I have come up with: I created a 'business' list within my friends by going to 'Edit Friends' and clicking on the option 'Create a List'. Now I can accept friend invitations from business contacts (and extend them), and share Words By Wendy posts with them. At the same time, by customizing my privacy settings, I can ensure that they aren't able to see pictures and posts from my personal friends.
Then it's simple enough to invite them to 'like' my business page.
If anyone has any suggestions to add to this, I would love to hear them!
Best wishes to all my 'business friends'.
Because your personal facebook profile and your business fanpage are inextricably linked, that can really cause some confusion about how to manage and separate your contacts.
Finding the best way to keep the personal friends on my profile page separate from my business friends and colleagues has been something of a struggle, and I admit I do keep changing my mind.
At first I thought it seemed logical to steer business connections away from my profile page, and invite them to 'like' my fanpage. But then I realized that if a business contact makes my fanpage a 'favourite page' through their own fanpage, they're not going to get any of my status updates. Not a very good way of keeping in touch.
I really don't think there's a simple answer, and I know the inability to separate personal and business is a sore spot for many people.
Here's the best solution I have come up with: I created a 'business' list within my friends by going to 'Edit Friends' and clicking on the option 'Create a List'. Now I can accept friend invitations from business contacts (and extend them), and share Words By Wendy posts with them. At the same time, by customizing my privacy settings, I can ensure that they aren't able to see pictures and posts from my personal friends.
Then it's simple enough to invite them to 'like' my business page.
If anyone has any suggestions to add to this, I would love to hear them!
Best wishes to all my 'business friends'.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Content Strategy for Social Media Marketing
If you're going to make social media part of your marketing mix, it's vital to develop a content strategy, just as you would with your print or web marketing.
In creating that strategy the most important question you need to ask is "what will provide the most value for my target audience?" Because, just like the readers of your print materials and your website, your audience is distractible and unforgiving. Keep them engaged and provide value, or they will zone out, or opt out.
So, what does that content strategy look like? A simple way to start is by developing a formula for the type of posts or articles that will provide the greatest value for your audience. Quick Tips, How To, Top Ten Mistakes - all great starting points to at least get you thinking about what information people may benefit from.
The post ideas can then of course be adapted to become longer blog articles or short, helpful snippets for twitter or facebook. No need to reinvent the wheel every time you post.
The more I get into this social media, though, the more I realize that there is such a thing as too much information. Just as with email marketing, I believe that daily posts are probably too much for an overwhelmed audience. So, consider, before you post anything, whether it really has a value.
I'm finding this strategy fairly simple to implement for Words By Wendy, as I explore this world of social media. Larchwood, who sells trees both to consumers and the landscaping trades, will have updated inventory lists to post on the Notes section of facebook. But for Greentree it is hard to see how building a social media community can work for a company that really has little potential for repeat business. Still working on that one!
So, remember to think value when planning your next posts.
In creating that strategy the most important question you need to ask is "what will provide the most value for my target audience?" Because, just like the readers of your print materials and your website, your audience is distractible and unforgiving. Keep them engaged and provide value, or they will zone out, or opt out.
So, what does that content strategy look like? A simple way to start is by developing a formula for the type of posts or articles that will provide the greatest value for your audience. Quick Tips, How To, Top Ten Mistakes - all great starting points to at least get you thinking about what information people may benefit from.
The post ideas can then of course be adapted to become longer blog articles or short, helpful snippets for twitter or facebook. No need to reinvent the wheel every time you post.
The more I get into this social media, though, the more I realize that there is such a thing as too much information. Just as with email marketing, I believe that daily posts are probably too much for an overwhelmed audience. So, consider, before you post anything, whether it really has a value.
I'm finding this strategy fairly simple to implement for Words By Wendy, as I explore this world of social media. Larchwood, who sells trees both to consumers and the landscaping trades, will have updated inventory lists to post on the Notes section of facebook. But for Greentree it is hard to see how building a social media community can work for a company that really has little potential for repeat business. Still working on that one!
So, remember to think value when planning your next posts.
Monday, August 30, 2010
How to Choose an Email Marketing Service Provider
Building a following for our social media efforts is obviously an integral part of our challenge in this project, and a great starting point has been email marketing.
So, my first task has been to evaluate the email marketing service providers and select one that would serve the needs of all three companies - Words By Wendy, Greentree Landscapes and Larchwood Nurseries.
The first thing I did was look for reviews and I found a very comprehensive comparison at Top Ten Reviews. There are several reviews out there, but I found this one helpful because it rated them all on five different criteria, gave pricing details and a full review.
Based on the reviews I tested three services that offer a free trial: Vertical Response, Campaigner and Benchmark.
Here's what I found out...
Benchmark is reasonably priced, but when I uploaded the list it had to be approved before it could be used. I suppose that's quite admirable, but they only approve Monday to Friday, which is not terribly convenient if you sign up over the weekend and want to get a campaign out. In fairness, though, I signed up on a Friday afternoon and had approval by Saturday morning.
Unfortunately I wasn't really excited about any of Benchmark's templates (which is, of course, purely subjective), and it took about 30 seconds for me to learn to hate their editing tool. Now, I am a self-confessed technophobe, and they were given full marks in the review for their ease of use and campaign creation tool. Nonetheless, I didn't get on with it.
Campaigner really has been quite impressive. I started to sign up and clicked off because I didn't want to give a credit card for a free trial. The next day I got an email asking me if there was a problem and offering me a free trial without a credit card.
Again I didn't find a template I really liked, but I created a campaign just to see how easy it was. It was really simple, even for me! Then, because I didn't send out the campaign, I got a phone call and an email the next day from my own personal email marketing coach, offering a one-on-one walk-through. Now that is good service!
I chose Vertical Response partly because I found templates that I liked for Words By Wendy and Larchwood, and also because they offer a pay-as-you-go option which is great if you have a small list that you're emailing infrequently. Because I plan to use the blog as my 'newsletter', that is a great option for Words By Wendy.
I used the service to email my business contacts with an invitation to check out the blog and join me on Facebook and LinkedIn. Whenever I had problems creating it I was able to access an online chat support which was very helpful - and convenient because it was immediate.
The only problem I had with Vertical Response was that the text version they automatically created for me looked like a dog's dinner! I was able to go through and tidy it up a little, but it still looked pretty bad. I'm not sure how many people these days aren't receiving HTML emails, but I just had to hope it wasn't many.
Next I will use either Campaigner or Vertical Response to simplify Larchwood's email marketing, which has been less frequent than it should be because the software we were using made it very complicated and time-consuming.
Finally, I should mention that I didn't test Constant Contact, but I have used them in the past and would totally recommend them for ease of use and service.
So, if you're looking for an email marketing service, I hope that's helpful.
So, my first task has been to evaluate the email marketing service providers and select one that would serve the needs of all three companies - Words By Wendy, Greentree Landscapes and Larchwood Nurseries.
The first thing I did was look for reviews and I found a very comprehensive comparison at Top Ten Reviews. There are several reviews out there, but I found this one helpful because it rated them all on five different criteria, gave pricing details and a full review.
Based on the reviews I tested three services that offer a free trial: Vertical Response, Campaigner and Benchmark.
Here's what I found out...
Benchmark is reasonably priced, but when I uploaded the list it had to be approved before it could be used. I suppose that's quite admirable, but they only approve Monday to Friday, which is not terribly convenient if you sign up over the weekend and want to get a campaign out. In fairness, though, I signed up on a Friday afternoon and had approval by Saturday morning.
Unfortunately I wasn't really excited about any of Benchmark's templates (which is, of course, purely subjective), and it took about 30 seconds for me to learn to hate their editing tool. Now, I am a self-confessed technophobe, and they were given full marks in the review for their ease of use and campaign creation tool. Nonetheless, I didn't get on with it.
Campaigner really has been quite impressive. I started to sign up and clicked off because I didn't want to give a credit card for a free trial. The next day I got an email asking me if there was a problem and offering me a free trial without a credit card.
Again I didn't find a template I really liked, but I created a campaign just to see how easy it was. It was really simple, even for me! Then, because I didn't send out the campaign, I got a phone call and an email the next day from my own personal email marketing coach, offering a one-on-one walk-through. Now that is good service!
I chose Vertical Response partly because I found templates that I liked for Words By Wendy and Larchwood, and also because they offer a pay-as-you-go option which is great if you have a small list that you're emailing infrequently. Because I plan to use the blog as my 'newsletter', that is a great option for Words By Wendy.
I used the service to email my business contacts with an invitation to check out the blog and join me on Facebook and LinkedIn. Whenever I had problems creating it I was able to access an online chat support which was very helpful - and convenient because it was immediate.
The only problem I had with Vertical Response was that the text version they automatically created for me looked like a dog's dinner! I was able to go through and tidy it up a little, but it still looked pretty bad. I'm not sure how many people these days aren't receiving HTML emails, but I just had to hope it wasn't many.
Next I will use either Campaigner or Vertical Response to simplify Larchwood's email marketing, which has been less frequent than it should be because the software we were using made it very complicated and time-consuming.
Finally, I should mention that I didn't test Constant Contact, but I have used them in the past and would totally recommend them for ease of use and service.
So, if you're looking for an email marketing service, I hope that's helpful.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Learning More About Social Media Marketing
I have a confession to make - I'm not learning fast enough, and I think it's time to take the bull by the horns! So I have enrolled in the Social Marketing Specialist Certification program through VA Classroom.
My first course is on fantastic Facebook fanpages, and what I have learned so far is that I set my page up wrong! I am considering removing the existing page and creating a new one. So if you get an invitation to become a fan of my facebook page, even though you already are one, that is why.
Stay tuned for more tips as I learn more about facebook marketing.
My first course is on fantastic Facebook fanpages, and what I have learned so far is that I set my page up wrong! I am considering removing the existing page and creating a new one. So if you get an invitation to become a fan of my facebook page, even though you already are one, that is why.
Stay tuned for more tips as I learn more about facebook marketing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)